TMNT Fighter Confirmed, Wii Bound

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Ex-Smash/Team Ninja developers looking to kick shell in 2009.

By Mark Bozon

News broke recently out of the latest Nintendo Power, and has been confirmed officially by Ubisoft, that a new TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) fighter is currently underway for Wii, and that it's slated for a September 2009 release.

Without being based on any specific release (movie, television show, or otherwise) the game will need to stand on its own merits, so Ubisoft has built a team up of ex-Smash Bros. and Team Ninja developers to tackle the task, with the team starting concept work in October of 2007, and full-on development in January of this year.

Very little is known so far, but confirmed already is the game's 2.5D design (Smash-inspired, obviously), a glow effect color system so players can keep track of their fighter mid-battle, four-player fighting, unlockable characters and stages, and a few specific modes. Ubisoft didn't say much on that front, adding only that there will be Story Mode, Battle Royal, Tournament, Practice, and two Winner/Loser Stays modes. In addition, the online aspects are said to have better implementation than Nintendo's own Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which would certainly make this one a real contender against Wii's top mascot fighter. If, of course, they can pull it off.

While news is still slim, an Ubisoft producer was quoted stating that "While this is a licensed game, it's not tied to any movie or TV show. For this game to succeed on its own it needs to be a great game."

That got us wondering. What style will we see for the TMNT fighter? We'd assume with 2.5D and the recent success of the TMNT movie (2007) that it'd be a hybrid of that design, mixed with their own artistic style thrown in. With that being said, the inner Turtles fan in us would love to see a game based on the classic comics that got the whole franchise started back in 1984.

As long as the game doesn't have Genghis Frog in it though, we're happy.